Microwaving cuts sintering from 15 hours to 15 minutes.

Sintering cycle time for microwave sintering is exceptionally short, only 5 to 10 minutes as compared to 15 to 20 hours for conventional sintering cycles, according to a paper to be presented at MS&T'08. The presentation is titled Microwave and Conventional Sintering of Premixed and Prealloyed Tungsten Heavy Alloys, by Avijit Mondal, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.

In the microwave sintering process, heat is generated internally or volumetrically within the material instead of originating from external heating sources. The aim of the reported investigatior is to study the sintering behavior of premixed and prealloyed W-10 Ni-Cu (7:3) powders in both a microwave furnace and a conventional furnace. The comparative analysis is based on the sintered density, densification parameter, hardness, and microstructures of the samples. The present investigation also includes the variation of matrix composition as a function of temperature by EPMA analysis. The rapid heating rate of microwave sintering greatly restricts tungsten grain coarsening, which resulted in fine tungsten grain distributed in Ni-Cu matrix. Visit www.matscitech.org for details.